Erik (Schack) Christensen, Globe Photographer

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Robert

Erik Schack photos in the G&M Photo Archives

Toronto. One of the perks of being a Globe and Mail subscriber is their News Photo Archive. I wrote about the archive last summer back on June 25, 2017.

According to the Globe. “Subscribers can explore the work of Erik Schack, one of The Globe and Mail’s most artistic photographers.

“Schack started as a freelancer after WWII, later becoming a staff photographer and changing his name to Erik Christensen to avoid post-war discrimination against Germans.

“Current staff photographer Fred Lum has described Schack’s art as ‘ahead of his time.’ According to Lum, ‘he was Danish before Danish became a style of shooting’.”

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a 50mm Summicron lens

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Robert

Leitz 50mm
Summicron in BM
Click for July 1956 ad
from Popular
Photography

Toronto. A few days ago George Dunbar sent me more ads by email. Amongst them was a Leitz ad for its famous 50mm Summicron in a collapsible mount.

I wrote back to George saying, “The seven element 5cm summicron ad brings memories. I have an iteration three or four times newer than that first model. The number of elements was reduced to six and recalculated at least twice.

“The one I have is a closer focusing, higher contrast and slightly sharper version with the fine focussing knurling in a light black anodized mount without an infinity lock. I bought it in 1972 with my M4 from Korda in Montreal. It came with the lens hood too (after I had an argument with the clerk and had to show him in the Leitz catalogue that the lens came with the hood).”

This lens replaced all previous standard lenses for the Leica. The famous Elmar f/3.5 was replaced by an optional f/2 Summar. Post war screw mount cameras and then M-mount cameras used an f/2 Summitar and then an f/2 Summicron as a standard lens. Early models were collapsible (fixed mount Summars are rare and expensive) while later ones like mine were fixed mounts with lens heads that could be unscrewed and used separately for close-ups.

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Free Black North – Dr Julie Crooks of the AGO

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Robert

Dr Julie Crooks of the AGO

Toronto. PHSC Meeting, Wed., Feb. 21, 2018
Free Black North – Dr Julie Crooks of the AGO

We celebrate Black History Month by welcoming Dr Julie Crooks of the AGO to talk about her first exhibition at the AGO titled Free Black North.

Dr Crooks has a wide background in art and photography. She, ” … received her PhD in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, U.K.

“Her research focuses on 19th and 20th century vernacular photography in West Africa and the diaspora.  Julie is also a curator working on projects concerning 19th and 20th century photographers from Africa and the diaspora. Julie has taught numerous courses in these fields at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), as well as Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU, Toronto), University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University, and York University (Toronto). From 2014 to 2016 she was a Rebanks Post Doctoral Fellow at the ROM (Royal Ontario museum). ”

From the ROM, Dr Crooks moved to the U of T’s Department of Visual Studies at Mississauga, and currently she holds the title of Assistant Curator of Photography in the AGO. We are delighted to have her talk at the PHSC’s Toronto meeting in this special month.

The public is always welcome. Go to our Programs page for directions.

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Photographic Canadiana 43-4 out soon

Posted on January 27, 2018 by Robert

Photographic Canadiana 43-4

Toronto. Our final issue for the 2017/8 membership year will hit the mail by month end. Members will see this beautiful issue early next month at the latest. Not a member? No problem, just go to the top right hand side bar of this site and sign up. Canadian addresses can choose one year or three years.

In the current issue are reviews of our monthly meetings for November and December 2017. Editor Lansdale and his able research assistant trace the Scouten family history and editor Lansdale tells a story about Tanner’s Crossing too . This is a riff from a Manitoba Land Grant certificate editor Lansdale acquired at one of our Photographica-Fairs.

In the column, Clint’s Curio Corner, our president recounts image finds from his recent visit to a camera show in Vancouver. Following that, editor Lansdale covers an unusual find at our recent Image Show. And in the column, Treasures From My Collection…, Bob Lansdale reviews his tiny Kodak camera collection – two little box cameras so small he compares them to a toonie coin! (A toonie is a $2 Canadian coin.)

This issue wraps up with a request for assistance to Vice-President John Kantymir regarding  unusual engravings on his special Kodak Rainbow Hawk-Eye Vest Pocket folder.

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the dawn of electronic flash for everyone

Posted on January 26, 2018 by Robert

Braun Hobby Flash c1956

Toronto. In the 1950s the Braun Hobby flash was touted as the cheap solution for everyone with a camera synced for flash and with an adjustable shutter. George Dunbar sent me this March 1956 Popular Photography ad by Leitz for the Braun Hobby. In 1956, the astonishingly popular Leica M3 was just two years old and featured both a built-in flash socket (non standard) and was synchronized for electronic flash. It seemed to be made for the Braun Hobby!

To keep the price down, the Braun Hobby was sold without a camera cable, or battery and could work with either a tiny lead-acid battery or dry cells (a slower option) or on any AC outlet. To  complement my Exakta VXIIa, I bought a used Ultrablitz Reporter II which was far more expensive, versatile and powerful than the Braun Hobby.

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Vancouver BC swap meet this April

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Robert

Vancouver Spring Swap Meet

Toronto. Tonchi Martinic out in BC sent me a note on Tuesday saying “I am very happy to remind you about our spring camera show. There is big interest in the show, and tables are already selling. Regards to you and other members.”

If you plan to be in Vancouver April 15th of this year, be sure to visit the swap meet (Click the icon at left for details) and add to your collection of rare and usable cameras and lenses. Or perhaps get a great old photo or album. And whether camera, lens, or photo, have fun researching your find.

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the days of the prime lens

Posted on January 24, 2018 by Robert

HOOPY 28mm Hektor lens
Click it to see the 1951 ad for Leitz primes

Toronto. We are spoiled these days by the wonderfully sharp zoom lenses which allow us to be lazy and just adjust the lens focal length to crop the scene rather than change a prime lens and actually move to get the best crop and frame of the scene!

I expanded my repertoire of focal lengths back in April of 1982 when I met Alex Thomas at a restaurant up in North York. He had this clean little pocket watch-size HOOPY 28mm f/6.3 Hektor Leitz screw mount lens which soon joined my collection. It was made in 1937 and looked like it was just made that day!

Prime lenses hit home this month when George Dunbar sent me  a copy of a June 1951 Popular Photography ad by Leitz featuring their range of lenses for the screw mount Leicas (just a few years before the revolutionary M-series hit the market). Zoom lenses were available at the time but the price was high, the resolution was poor, the distortion high and the focal length range narrow. Leitz refused to make such optics for their cameras which were famous for their lenses and quality of build.

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the bigger the better

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Robert

Leitz Focotar Lens
click to see 1951 ad

Toronto.  George Dunbar sent me an ad for the Leitz enlarger Focomat 1c recently. The ad is from the October 1951 issue of Popular Photography. The icon at left is my Focotar lens which I bought from the late Bill Belier in April, 1987.

I didn’t care for the parallel arms the professional Leitz enlarger used to adjust magnification, nor its 2x -10x autofocus range, nor the less expensive, manually focussed,  Leitz Valoy enlarger.

My preferred enlarger was the Durst M35 which I still own. It is a marvellous instrument  with a Schneider componon 50mm autofocus lens. The enlarger embodies every technical provision conceptualized by Gilbert Durst.

When Leitz first marketed its minicam Leica in 1924/5, the big task it faced was to convince professional photographers that a miniature negative suitably developed and enlarged could equal a commercial print contact printed, saving the photographer cost and weight.

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flash before electronic

Posted on January 22, 2018 by Robert

Toronto. George Dunbar sent me another bunch of ads the other day. This one from the December, 1951 issue of Popular Photography brings back memories. I was in grade nine high school and for Christmas I was given a new Brownie Hawk-eye flash camera. It was a neat black bakelite box camera that took 620 film, and Sylvania #5 or #25 flash bulbs. The contact prints were 2 and a quarter inch square. The famous blue dot showed the bulb was fresh and not fired. On firing, the dot turned a brownish pink.

The bulbs came in sleeves, a dozen per sleeve. They came in clear and blue (for using daylight colour negative film indoors). And my Hawk-eye came with a flash cover for protection – it too was clear or blue depending on which way it was slipped over the flash gun. The blue eliminated any need for a blue lens filter. In this ad, Sylvania touts the potential of using multiple bulbs to light a bigger area – in their case a 1,400 bulb area (far beyond the capability of my meagre part time salary).

Of course when electronic flash came along, flash bulbs disappeared. Like many things photographic, there was a long overlap when both bulbs and electronic flash existed together. Less than a decade later, I was surprised to find that my Ultrablitz electronic flash gave about the same illumination as a #5 flash bulb! More decades later, PHSC co-founder Larry Boccioletti cornered the market on flash bulbs for those who aspired to the real deal whether for movies, TV, or personal use. Electronic flash replaced flash bulbs and was usually built-in. Today, the majority of digital cameras and most smartphones have a built-in flash that can be set to go off automatically when needed.

Larry Boccioletti by Robert Lansdale

NOTE:  The photograph of Larry is from the late Margaret Lansdale’s 1997 book “….a funny thing happened on the way to the darkroom!” which was produced by our journal editor and her husband, Robert, and is a compilation of columns she wrote for Exposure Ontario and articles for the PPOC magazine.

 

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Verichrome

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Robert

Kodak Verichrome B&W film
from a May 1947 LIFE ad.

Toronto. My thanks to George Dunbar for sourcing the delightful Kodak advertisement of May 1947 featured in the May 12th, 1947 issue of that magazine.(Click on the icon at left to see the ad in full.)

When I was a youngster using a box camera, my dad bought my first roll of film – Kodak Verichrome black and white film. At the time, Verichrome was the only film you would buy for any Kodak camera. Until many years later Verichrome was orthochromatic – it was blind to reds so a little red window would show the frame number on the back of the camera. The frame number was stamped on back of the opaque paper that wrapped the film to keep out light. Verichrome was made and sold by Kodak from 1931 to 1956 as Verichrome Safety Film. It was first sold around 1907 on glass plates by a British company that Kodak bought in 1912. It was replaced by Verichrome Pan film.

The film was special as it had not one, but two emulsions. The film combined a fast and a slow emulsion in such a way that under exposed shots would look right on the fast emulsion and over exposed shots came out right on the slow emulsion. This strategy gave a higher percentage of printable images on a roll of film.

In fact, Verichrome was so good that the famous Kodak motto was subtly changed on Verichrome ads to say “You press the button and IT does the rest”.

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